Archive for the 'Life' Category

I live to eat and sleep well, and most of the people I know will agree to one if not both; one of the biggest opponents of my life-mantra is my dear daughter. Why does she hate sleeping? And why does she hate eating good food, and no I am not talking about the baby-goop that is branded and sold as full nourishment for your kid, I am talking about absolutely tasty food made by the wife in shuddh-ghee. I would lick the plate clean if presented with that, take a nice loud burp and toddle off to sleep, not my daughter – she would take a look at it, scoff at the insolence of her parents that they gave her food, turn to the closest non-food object, pop that in her mouth and toddle off to tear apart another paper in small pieces. At least for the sleep part I can understand her logic – why waste it sleeping when you can spend that time making mom-dad turn tricks for you?

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I don’t know how, but she seems to have picked up a few political genes as well. She won’t do anything until her palm is greased. “Want me to take a bite of food? First give me your mobile-phone.” “Another bite? Jump up and down for me.” “Another one? Only if you let me go out of the room after this bite.” “More? I need Dad’s glasses before I can promise anything.” “Are you trying to stuff me? I need to watch that video on youtube.” “Are you kidding me? I already ate 5 bites and I refuse to yield with even all your pressure. I am not a politician that I will agree if you promise me more.”

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I remember some research that kids start lying early, I can provide conclusive proof to that. If I am ignoring the kid, and she wants my attention she will resort to all tricks possible. She will blow her nose like it is running so that I check all is well, “OK Dad came and went back seeing my nose is not runny at all. Time to step it up a notch.” Next she will shout putty (no, she is not talking about the ssh client – although can’t be sure with kids of this age) instead of potty and hope for the best. When another check reveals her lies, she will resort to the safest bet: shout “dudhu” or “pani” – after all which Dad can ignore a plea of hunger? I will pick her up and get a glass of water for her. Mission accomplished! :-)

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Absolutely enjoying this phase, should have started writing these fatherhood tales earlier.

Till today Diwali used to mean lots of hustle-bustle, fliers screaming sales, being forced to clean house (at times), applying for vacation 2 months back, and booking train/flight tickets even earlier. Never realized how integral these things had become in my life till today when I am celebrating – no that is the wrong word, there is no celebration here – spending my Diwali in office working more hours than usual to cover for people in India who are enjoying this day. For the past 2 days I have been avoiding Facebook like a plague as the posts and photographs only serve to remind me of what I am missing. I know today is a special day, it even feels the same way but I am forced to treat it as a normal working day. For me this is the first Diwali as an expat, and I am hoping all my subsequent Diwali’s are at home in India.

Enough depressing talk, I think another factor responsible for it is the weather. I don’t mind the cold, but give me some sun! 1-2 hours of sunshine is enough, but here the weather has been dreary for the last few days. The fall is at an end and as the Starks’ say “Winter is Coming”

This is not a travelogue – I hate these kinds of beginnings.. This *is* a travelogue, at least I think so, but not the usual stuff – simply because I have forgotten how to write. I’ll just write random things I remember about Venice and Florence and sprinkle a few photographs within and try to pass this off as “An Italy Travelogue”

Italy is just few hours away from Munich and consequently I was thinking that the place would not be much different from Germany – how wrong was I?! Italy and and the Italians reminded me more of India then Germany. How? That is a long story, so instead of blabbering about that let me post a photograph from the city of Venice!

Venice from the boat

Venice is completely dependent on two things – bridges and boats. Actually add another thing – tourists. Without them I seriously doubt anyone would ever live there! Before a few Venetian people find my blog and vow to avenge their home let me post another photograph of this beautiful place.

How did they ever make a complete city on water?

But on the whole I enjoyed visiting Venice – a completely unique experience. And when booking a hotel for Venice, I would recommend *not* booking in Mestre (the mainland counterpart of Venice) but in the actual city of Venice. It was beautiful having a room overlooking Grand Canal from one window and a not-so-grand canal from the other.

Venice Sidewalk

A ride on a train (where I decided to learn Portugese to help out any further without-ticket Brazilian girls – hope the wife does not read this) later we entered the beautiful city of Florence. The city left me spell-bound with its art, and my hotel left me hungry with its snafu! I was about to dig up the baingan-pizza-without-any-sauce when the hotel recovered brilliantly and I had the best pizza of Italy (I may not be exaggerating, considering my other experiences with pizza in Italy). Alright I wrote a long paragraph, time for a photograph!

Ponte Vecchio – the only bridge to survive WW2

I absolutely loved the city of Florence – narrow cobblestone roads, majestic architecture, awe-inspiring art and shops magical enough to wipe the contents of your wallet with one glance. My cloak of disregard helped me avoid those glances but the cloak was no match for the aromas of pasta, scratch that, make that the scent of Wi-Fi! The internet speed was no doubt good, and it was fun seeing I had 70 unread emails in my Inbox – of which just one was worth reading and even that was addressed to the wife; but the pasta was equally good.

Florence framed by a window in the Giotto’s Campanile

The agenda for the final day was to visit Pisa and lean on the Leaning Tower but my view that Italy is similar to India was reinforced in the worst possible way – a strike cancelling all trains to Pisa and then an hour long wait to cancel my tickets (for which the refund will arrive in two months)! Anyway that allowed me the time to climb the 414 steps of the Gioto’s Tower and see a brilliant view of the Duomo and the city of Florence.

Florence from the top with the Tuscan countryside in the background

And that brings us to the close of this not-a-travelogue travelogue. Samachar samapt hue, shubh ratri.

It has been ages since I wrote something properly, and so much has happened in my life. Now I just need to find time – actually scratch that, I need to get the drive to write something properly.

So many drafts lying unpublished, so many stories lying without an end – should get back to those. I should write.

I should write about Hyderabad – my home for nearly 11 years – how badly I miss it. I should write about Munich, my new “home” – can I even call it that yet? I should write more.

I should write about the new gadgets I’ve been using, but what is the use? Everybody uses the same. I should write about the apps I’m loving, but leave that too. At least I’ve been clicking photographs and publishing them on instagram – that is one good thing.

Well the conclusion is I should write, will get to it soon, hopefully!

Bright Lights launches today at Mumbai. That means today I would be a published author for the third time :)
Posting an excerpt from my story “The Weeping Girl”

He heard the sniffling first, and then the sobs made their presence felt. It being a particularly dark stretch of road, the visual confirmation came last. A girl was sitting on the pavement, feet on the road with her head held in her hands, crying incessantly. For a hopeless romantic at heart, who was a fan of romantic movies, and would swear by the movie Notting Hill, this was a scene that could have been easily lifted out of one of the rom-coms, and yet for all the preparation of watching movies and TV series and envisioning similar scenarios, Jai was surprisingly at a loss for words.

After an uncomfortable thirty seconds, while Jai just stared dumbfounded, somehow he mustered enough courage to open his mouth and the words shout out, “Are you okay?“

… … …

The thought train in Jai’s mind was steaming ahead. First of all, that name – Nisha. It had all started with Madhuri Dixit when she had immortalized this name; anytime he met a girl named Nisha he felt an instant attraction and he was not alone in this phenomenon. Many of his friends and acquaintances were crazy after the name ‘Nisha’ too. To top it all, almost all the Nishas he had met had been gorgeous. This Nisha was no exception. And she seemed to be interested in him, he was almost sure of that.